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Pastimes : French Boycott -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (23)	3/16/2003 6:38:49 PM
From: Poet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77

What does merit a boycott is France's current bullheaded opposition to war on Iraq. I disagree. Vehemently. All your generous "history lessons" notwithstanding. Looking forward to your PM. ;-)

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (23)	3/16/2003 8:58:12 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 77

Lazarus. The French do not want an invasion because they have dirty hands. French industry has been selling all manner of industrial items to Iraq that have dual use capability. Industrial and WMD uses. This covers all manner of small scale fermentation equipment, as well as small scale chemical reactors. Now in the west we would not operate small scale fermentors to make a large volume of anthrax spores, or nerve agents. We would make a large one and make it for the lowest possible cost. Iraq however needs portability and deniability. If you sacrifice efficiency you can make a large amount of Anthrax from 100 small reactors. It will cost you more per dose....so what. The same holds true for nerve gas.. If I was tasked with making anthrax spores and nerve gas and the max space I had was a short sea container. 20 feet long, 108" high and 84" wide, how would I do it? I would break it all up into modules that would fit easily into these containers and hit the road with it while they were actually producing. Since almost all these processes involve agitaions, they are not sensitive to any problems from the travelling. At some stages they might want a period for settling....park the truck. Now Algeria has pathways to many other Islamic countries and it has French connection. Thus I suspect French industry has been aiding saddam. Of course, they will grab the deniability inherent in all dual use equipment if this ever comes to light. In truth the French economy is in terrible shape and they need all the $$ they can get. Counter trade with Iraq to get oil for French process equipment is almost a certainty. Bill